FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - The DAX started trading with slight losses on Thursday. The lowered key interest rates in the world's largest economy did not provide any fresh momentum. Instead, concerns about the booming topic of artificial intelligence (AI) weighed on sentiment. The US cloud company Oracle had disappointed the previous evening. Although sales rose strongly thanks to business with products for AI use, growth in this area fell short of expectations. In addition, higher investments in AI data centers were announced.
The German benchmark index fell 0.4 percent to 24,032 points in the first minutes of trading. The MDax index of medium-sized stocks lost 0.2 percent to 29,680 points. The Eurozone index EuroStoxx 50 fell 0.3 percent to 5,690 points.
By midweek, the DAX's recovery since its November low had already stalled. According to Thomas Altmann, portfolio manager at QC Partners, defending the psychologically important 24,000-point mark is now once again "the biggest and most important task." The German benchmark index recently closed above 24,000 four times in a row, but now it must withstand headwinds from the Nasdaq. This important US index mainly contains technology stocks, and the Nasdaq 100 futures are expected to get off to a weak start after the Oracle debacle. "The high level of investment in the AI sector is cause for concern," said Altmann.
Meanwhile, the US Federal Reserve lowered its key interest rate by 0.25 percentage points, as expected, due to concerns about the domestic labor market. It was the third interest rate cut this year. There are fears of risks to employment, so persistent inflation at elevated levels has taken a back seat. Wall Street reacted positively to this. However, experts emphasized the disagreement within the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). This is also reflected in the interest rate forecasts of the central bankers and is likely to continue to affect the stock markets in the coming year, according to analyst Leon Ferdinand Bost of Metzler Capital Markets./ck/mis
